Music. Marketing. Culture. Creativity. Interaction! "Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become”
My favorite talk during The Conference 2011!
Amber Case talks about Cyborg Anthropology in a fresh and inspiring way!
Extremely insightful talk, make sure to take the time with it ;]
I had the privilege of living 1 hour away from NYC for 1 year and a half of my life, followed by living 3 weeks in Queens (Astoria.. yes!) and then a couple of months in New Haven, which made my commute into Manhattan, to attend a Music Marketing class at NYU, 2 hours long. NYC is, indeed, my favorite city in the world, so far, and it's with a very personal touch that I share an extremely personal and probably outdated NYC guide with whoever is interested:
My fav restaurant is called Republic and its at Union Sq (14th st) - http://thinknoodles.com/ If they still have it in their menu, order the Crispy Tofu to start with and the Seared Marinated Salmon as a main course! delicious! ;]
Still around this area, you can find this AMAZING chocolate place called Max Brener (you can see the Virgin store in the corner and a big movie theater in front of it)... order some crepes with fruits and ice cream, it comes with melted hot chocolate.. and theres this thing called Sucao, you melt the chocolate in the milk and drink while it's still melting... mmm - http://www.maxbrenner.com/
Then if you wanna grab some cheap and good quality Japanese food, you can skip the fancy places and go to the real thing: stop at Astor Pl. and go to St. Marks st - you're gonna see lots of tattoo places and alternative clothes store and a few small, almost hitten, japanese restaurants... none specific: they're all good! just pick one you like the most and try it! watch it: they change the food's names... so you wont find "temaki" for example.. they call it "hand roll"... and no mango in the sushis.. they use avocado instead in all of them! ;]
Last eating tip: if you're around Bleecker St., they have 2 things you cant miss it: amazing italian ice cream and next door, amazing original italian pizza! - http://bleeckerstreetpizza.com/
Then, of course, whenever you're around of any of these places, you might just take the time to walk around Washington Sq. Park... which is one of my favorites! It's usually full of NYU students and a lot of musicians... last time i was there, the fontain was renewing, so it looked quite ugly, but luckly it will be fine by now... they have this big "arc" which is one of NYC's post cards... from there you can walk around the village and find cozy places to hang out later on...
If you have the time, go check Chelsea Hotel! its a classic one and there are tons of stories haunting that place down... you can almost feel it on the walls while you walk those amazing old stairs down from the top... tip: dont ask anyone: simply walk in and go to the elevator.. pick a high floor to drop and walk down the stairs checking the halls and the art on it! when you get to this huge poster full of "Marcia" and other signatures, you can look for my name on the left corner in the bottom: sign it closer! ;] - http://www.hotelchelsea.com/ PS: you can google Chelsea Hotel and read about it on wikipedia! its really cool! ;]
If you're on this area, you can walk to this Diner called Venus... its from a friend of my website designer, who was my roommie in New Haven, its 24hrs and has tons of good options! so its a must stop if you have the time: http://www.yelp.com/biz/new-venus-restaurant-new-york
SoHo and Tribecca: I'd just walk around, usually checking for some Movie and Music Events, so you better check what's going on when you get there! Time Out magazine usually has the whole schedule and it can come in hand for that! ;]
There's a traditional independent movie theater called Angelika... it's at Houston St. - it was one of my fav, so if you feel like checking some foreign movies, this is the place! - http://angelikafilmcenter.com/
Then, of course, the must see spots:
Central Park: get in through 5th av (and i guess 57th or 58th st) - this entrance has the famous Hotel Plaza and in the opposite side of it you'll find the Apple store (one of them) and FAO Swarchtz -the famous toy store with the piano on the floor from the movie "Big". besides, through this entrance you can see the lake and the brigde, which is one of the most famous part of Central Park...
Don't forget to check where John Lennon got shot.. there's a hotel (where it happened, called Dakota) almost in the corner and through that entrance they have a memorial on the floor at the Park written "imagine", usually full of roses and people taking pics.
Times Square: fun things to do in here would be Hard Rock Cafe, but you should try to go with time, cause it's often packed with tourists... have the apple pie there! it's the best one ever! great onion rings as well!; M&M's store can be kind of fun; if you walk downtown, you can check Madison Square Garden... oops, and of course, while still at Times Square you might just watch something on Broadway! which i didnt do =P
Rockafeller Center, Grand Central Terminal, Empire States, Statue of Liberty, old WTC... all of these you should add on your tour around! I personally recommend you Rockafeller Center over Empire States, but if you can, check them both! cause Top of the Rock is more modern and cool looking up there! and if you're around Rockafeller Center, walk to NBC store: tons of tv shows souvernirs (if you're still not sick of it!)
If you need to buy cheap stuff, you can go to Century 21, it's very famous for that... or of course, fake cheap things at Chinatown...Go to Canal St for that, but be careful not to get busted! I can also recommend to stop by at Urban Outfitters, which is a favorite for clothes!
Hope it's a bit helpful!
HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME!
This lively RSA Animate, adapted from Dan Pink's talk at the RSA, illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace.
This month it's been 1 year since I have moved to Sweden. That I have, officially, decided to take a chance to start a whole new chapter of my life, from scratch, in a Country I never expected to be in before. Hang in there, it's getting professional now! People ask me a lot how I managed to get a job, without knowing Swedish, in my field, one month right after I have moved, in the middle of a Recession. So here is how:
When I first considered coming to Sweden I was still living in the USA. It was beginning of 2008. I got invited by one of my best friends to spend Summer in Sweden. Although I had a ticket back home booked, I took a chance and got a ticket to Stockholm, where I spent 3 months. And here's the secret: I was motivated by LOVE. On that note, I knew that, what I really needed, was to see if Sweden could be a place I'd feel comfortable living in and if I'd have a real opportunity to start the life I wanted here. So I started: without a Visa or knowing the language, I started looking for Start-ups in Sweden, online, and would see which ones I could directly reach the CEO. Then I'd honestly write them briefly about my intention and goal and in detail, would write about my education and background - the catch here is that I do have a good level of Education in my field as well as reasonable experience. I'd do that everyday and overall I sent over 200 CV's. Got 199 "No". But guess what? I just cared about the 1 "Yes" I got. The CEO of a Start-up in Linköping thought I was very bold and that was actually what caught his attention in my email. He sent one of his Managers to meet me in person for a quick interview. It went great. Then, I got invited to their Office in Linköping to have another interview, this time with the CEO and CTO. I left the office with the Manager telling me to put a proposal together cause they'd like to hire me for 6 months and would take care of getting me a Visa and get me back to Sweden. So to wrap up my Summer: I left after 3 months with a contract signed and a real chance to move to Sweden.
This is the not-so-sweet part, but it was equally important, of course. Once I got back to Brasil, the Recession was kicking in. The Start-up no longer knew a date when I could start with the whole Visa process and I was "stuck" in their contract. My goal was still to get back to Sweden (Love, remember?) so as the months passed by without any news, I started worrying if it would happen at all. I had a 5 hours time zone difference Brasil - Sweden, so I started waking up on Swedish time and my days would consist in getting in touch with as many Swedes as possible (Twitter and Linkedin did the trick very well) for possible Network and work opportunities. Meanwhile I put a lot of pressure on the Start-up for some decision regarding my situation and we found a temporary solution: I started working online for them, 4 hrs a day. It was a good way to show them who I was professionally and have a clue how to work for/with Swedes. It opened a lot of doors. It put me in the map here in Sweden and that made a lof of difference.
Eventually they've realized that the Recession had been too harsh on them and they wouldn't be able to hire me in the upcoming 6 or 8 months ahead. I couldn't wait that long (Love...) so that was the end of it. I applied for a Visa without having a job, in the middle of the Recession, but with a good reference from this Start-up. I was back to my approaching all CEO's in Sweden from companies I found I could collaborate with. Twitter and Linkedin, 5 hours time zone difference and almost 6 months since I left Sweden.
About 2 months before I had a date to move to Sweden, I got invited to 4 interviews. So, the deal was: as soon as I got my feet in Sweden, I should let them know so we could meet in person.
The rest has been the usual interview face-to-face thing. I was 100% interested and I absolutely needed (another key word) to get a job before my savings were over (I had enough to go through 2 months... that's right!). And I am sure that all the people I have talked to could feel how much I wanted a job. How interested I was. How my energy was high and my mind full of ideas. And believe me: being motivated does a lot for you to get picked.
I was lucky enough to meet a CEO who works in a very similar pace as I do (which is really fast) and who was so open minded. I'm not sure if he would hire me again, but he did then and I've been working at my current company for almost 1 year now. He believed in me and gave me an opportunity. But the main thing is that I didn't really wait for one, I created it!
So here is what worked for me in Sweden:
It's been quite a novel, but I thought if I'm going take the time to write about this, I want to do it right. Maybe, there is someone who will read this and decide to stick with a plan instead of giving up. And that makes it all worth it!
See you around?